


never the last, never alone

by txrdisblues



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Bad Wolf, Bad Wolf Rose Tyler, F/M, Post-Episode AU: s02e13 Doomsday, Post-Episode: s02e13 Doomsday, Reunion, Tumblr: doctorroseprompts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-25
Updated: 2017-03-25
Packaged: 2018-10-10 16:47:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10442496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/txrdisblues/pseuds/txrdisblues
Summary: The culmination of the TARDIS meddling with the fate of her inhabitants, Rose Tyler always doing her Very Best, and purple fields.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by two prompts posted on the doctorroseprompts tumblr: Rose regenerates + the Doctor regenerates when Rose isn't there, to create: Rose regenerates when the Doctor isn't there. This is also totally a reunion fic, bc I do love me a good reunion.

The Doctor awoke with a start.

It wasn't very often that the Doctor slept, but when he did, he usually walked among nightmare after nightmare. For a brief, drowsy moment, he assumed that had been the reasoning for his sudden awakening, but he quickly realized there'd been no bad dream. _How odd_ , he thought. However, he didn't consider this peculiarity for very long before he realized a newfound need rested within him, and the TARDIS echoed this need back to him - he had to visit the expansive, free-trade markets of Hilfaaren. He couldn't really place his finger on the root of this desire, but he didn't really give it much thought. He reckoned it was probably the TARDIS telling him to go out and mingle, because she knew he needed to stop moping around. She'd been echoing this idea for days now, and perhaps she was right. With that, he got dressed and ready, and marched himself to the console room.

Upon arriving, he expected something to suddenly jump out at him, to reveal the reasoning of his need to be here. But nothing made itself evident, and after a few moments of blearily looking around, he shrugged, and stepped forth into the market. He was sure there were a few parts here he could use for the continual upgrades he was always making on the TARDIS...

* * *

 

" _Doctor!_ "

The Doctor spun around, his eyes flickering all about him to find the source of the cry. The voice that had spoken had sounded familiar, but... there was no familiar face it seemed to belong to.

All of a sudden, a woman with light brown hair faded into view, and barreled towards him before throwing her arms around him and burying her face in his pinstriped suit jacket.

"Doctor, I found you!"

This woman felt so familiar to him, and yet he knew he'd never seen her face before in any of his lives. He never forgot a face. _Blasted timelines_ , he thought, _I'm always meeting people in the wrong order._

She was crying, he could tell from the way her body shook slightly. Though he didn't know her yet, he brought his hands to rest softly on her back, trying to soothe her.

He nearly asked her who she was before the TARDIS' telepathic presence in his mind so abruptly told him to stop. He met her remark with confusion and curiosity, and asked her to elaborate. She tugged on old telepathic centers of his brain that he hadn't used in years, and bid he look there.

He shut his eyes, and reached out in vain to the people he knew weren't there. It was empty, always would be empty, in that corner of his mind and the TARDIS _knew_ that and how could she ask of him to try when -

He gasped.

Oh, what a glorious, _hopeful_ feeling this was.

"Rose!" he cried, and tears sprung to his eyes. The woman in his arms leaned back a little to meet his gaze, and she was grinning from ear to ear. Her features were different, but her eyes... She giggled with bright joy, and there was an overwhelming sense of compassion that felt to just radiate from her. He had no idea how it could be, but it was _Rose_.

She nodded excitedly. "I was so worried you wouldn't recognize me!" She laughed again, shaking her head. "I was so worried, the Void had nearly shut and I was so focused on not losing you, and all of a sudden I was surrounded by this golden light, and I could hear the TARDIS singin' in my head, 'n' then I was back in this universe, but I couldn't - "

"It's still you, though?" She could explain later, he thought. He was desperate to know, this all just seemed so improbable, and worry filled him. Was this a dream? It had to be, there was no way any of this was even _possible_ -

Rose grinned that familiar grin that seemed to set the dark ablaze. "S'still me, Doctor."

"Oh, Rose." He pulled her in for another hug, relishing in the way her hug felt so right and so much like home and belonging, even if she was a few inches taller than he remembered her being. "Come back to the TARDIS with me?"

She giggled again. _What a joyous sound!_ he reveled. "I really thought you'd never ask."

After savoring their glorious hug for a few moments longer, they parted (as slightly as required) to make it possible to journey back to the TARDIS.

As they walked, their fingers most immediately twined with another, and the Doctor could have cried at how familiar it felt, to be here with Rose and adventuring with her (even though they were just walking) and to be happy - there was no feeling like it. He could have skipped all the way home.

On their walk, Rose explained to him what had happened, and what she supposed had caused it. She said that as she had burst into that golden light, she had suddenly been bombarded with memories she'd never known she'd had - ones of the Game Station, and of looking into the heart of the TARDIS to become a Goddess of Time, and to save her Doctor. In begging the TARDIS to give her a way to always keep her Doctor safe, and most importantly, from being alone again, she realized now that the old girl had also used all this and all the loneliness she felt from the Doctor after the Time War as justification to make the changes that she knew needed to be made.

These changes had never been realized until a timeline that jeopardized these requests was met, and as the Void had closed in Rose had called out telepathically, without even realizing she had done it, to the TARDIS, who had helped her do what she realized later was regenerate. In splitting and dispersing her atoms, she was able to slip back through the shrinking cracks between universes to the place she belonged. She had been dropped onto the grassy purple field of a planet she had vaguely remembered visiting.

Upon standing up she realized she was a few inches taller than she recalled, and when she looked down at her hands, they appeared different. She raced to the nearest village and was unbearably shocked at the face she saw in the mirror - it wasn't hers. She spent the next few days in a hotel in the village, feeling as if though she was teetering on the edge of sanity. She used the Doctor's psychic paper she still had with her to manage getting by as she figured out what to do with herself. It wasn't until her third day that she realized she was in the right universe, because the TARDIS was still translating foreign languages for her, and from there she went to work. With hope in her heart, she began using whatever this planet could offer to her about knowledge of telepathy (what good fortune it was the she'd been stranded on a planet where the purple grass was not only good for being beautiful but for enhancing telepathic strength, she thought). She finally honed her skills so that she might send an overwhelming feeling to the Doctor or the TARDIS that said they ought to come to the planet on which she was stranded. From there, the rest was history.

The Doctor said it was the most wonderful story he'd ever been told.

Her tale finished up right as they made it back to the doors of the TARDIS, and Rose hurried towards the old wooden doors, yanking her key excitedly out from beneath her shirt. She thrust it into the lock, and felt tears well in her eyes another time. She looked back at the Doctor, who was beaming down at her, and she grabbed his hand excitedly before throwing the door open and launching herself inside.

The TARDIS sent off mental streamers and confetti, overjoyed that her favorite companion was back. The Doctor felt as if though he'd never been so happy, and as Rose tugged him towards the console just so she could hug the Time Rotor and offer the beloved ship her affections, he felt his hearts swell with adoration he'd never felt before.

He realized, now, that the girl his eyes beheld was the owner of all his love, and he really didn't see any problem with that, not anymore. The future was so full of hope and possibility, and he could share it all with her.

He swept Rose into his arms, hugging with her all he had and hoping that she could understand just how much he adored her and owed to her. One day, he would tell her, he vowed.

"You're back, you're really back, for good this time!" he cried, spinning her in a circle and burying his face in her neck.

"And you're not the last anymore! You'll never be alone," she offered in return, just as joyously.

They grinned, knowing and sharing in the idea that even if they were wrong, they were too happy right now to care.

And, as it happened, neither one ever would be.

* * *

 

They sat at the table in the kitchen much later that night as they ate dinner, grasping each other's hands like schoolchildren. With how giddy they felt, they reckoned they might as well be. Who knew that sitting at an old, worn-out table in the ship's galley eating cereal for supper would be so joyful? Neither of the pair, until suddenly, here they were. The Doctor hadn't been here since That Fateful Day At Torchwood, because he'd had no one to share his meals with, and sitting alone was too painful. Rose had dreamed about every possible aspect of returning to life with the Doctor, including simple meals at hours late into the evening. Their happiness was tangible.

"So," Rose began, ready to bridge the fateful question she'd been avoiding ever since her return a few hours ago. "Am I a Time Lord now?"

The Doctor looked at her with about as much sobriety as he could muster. "Not quite." He didn't want her to feel trapped, but he had to tell her the truth. And, dear Rassilon, it was the most wonderful truth he'd ever been admitted in all his lives.

Not quite? Rose's heart plummeted. That lack of loneliness she had offered to the Doctor earlier could never be true, could it? She -

His eyes were still shining with ill-hidden excitement. She quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Rose?"

"Yeah?"

He paused momentarily, a smile spreading throughout all his features at once and was completely contagious to Rose, who was immediately infected with the same joy.

"You're a Time _Lady_."


End file.
